FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PLEA - PAGE 3

The former head ofU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementin South Florida, facing federal child pornography charges, has filed a request in federal court to change his plea. Anthony V. Mangione, 51, of Parkland, was arrested in September after an investigation by the FBI andBroward Sheriff's Office. He originally pleaded not guilty to three counts of possessing, receiving and transporting child pornography. According to a federal court docket, Mangione filed the plea change request Tuesday, and will have a hearing July 20 in West Palm Beach.

A blind Delray Beach minister accepted a plea bargain on Thursday in connection with charges that he sexually battered his step-daughter. Charles Brown, 39, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of battery and was sentenced to the time already served in jail, one day. His stepdaughter, now 18, agreed to the plea, Assistant State Attorney Tom Lawson said. Brown, a minister at the Church of the Living God on Southwest 11th Avenue, was charged with two counts of lewd assault and four counts of sexual activity with a child from August 1986 to October 1988.

Christopher Madalone, eager to cop a plea in the beating death of a Vietnamese-American pre-med student in Coral Springs, wants to know how much prison time he'd face under state sentencing guidelines. A judge on Friday granted Madalone's request for a pre-plea, pre-sentence investigation. Madalone, 23, of Tamarac, is one of six men still charged with second-degree murder in the Aug. 15, 1992, beating of Luyen Phan Nguyen, 19, during a party in Coral Springs. Nguyen died a day later. A seventh man, Bradley Mills, 20, of Tamarac, was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison in October 1992.

A judge on Thursday rejected a plea bargain of 10 years in prison for a Lake Worth man accused of intentionally setting a fire that killed two people and hurt two others. Michael Hoelz, 39, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter and one count of battery rather than face the possibility of the death penalty again in a second trial. Hoelz said he was innocent but agreed to the plea bargain because it was in his best interest. of objections by the victims and law enforcement officers.

Kimberly Lightsey, a 30-year-old Winter Haven mom facing child neglect charges, agreed to not have any more children as a condition of her probation and house arrest for child neglect charges, according to The Ledger in Lakeland. After glancing at her boyfriend in court, she told the judge that they wanted to have a child in the future because her boyfriend doesn't have any children, according to the report. "But you've got four of them," the judge reportedly said. Find out about the child abuse charges and get the DUHtails at The Ledger in Lakeland.

A priest, accused by many men of molesting them as youth, is expected to accept a plea deal Monday morning in Broward Circuit Court, said his lawyer, David Bogenschutz. Rev. Neil Doherty, now retired, served at several South Florida churches, including St. Vincent's in Margate and St. Anthony's in Fort Lauderdale. He is now retired from the Archdiocese of Miami. Many of the men who said they were molested by Doherty said he used his power as a priest to drug and rape them when they were boys.

Trinaka Brown, a temporary worker accused of forging more than $120,000 in claims checks at a Delray Beach insurance service center, backed out of a former plea bargain on Friday. Brown, 21, of Miami, last week pleaded guilty to grand theft and other charges in exchange for a five-year probationary sentence that was contingent on her family repaying $4,000 of what she stole. Brown would be responsible for paying the balance throughout her probation. But if her family could not pay that restitution upfront, Brown would be sentenced to two years in prison, according to the plea agreement.

The former director of Hope House of the Palm Beaches, accused of stealing more than $300,000 from the AIDS charity, decided on Thursday not to plead guilty after his attorney said he was withdrawing from the case. Last week, Robert Greijack, 41, told a judge he intended to enter guilty pleas to charges of grand theft, scheme to defraud and forgery. But in court on Thursday, Greijack's attorney, Ted Brabham, said the plea could not go forward because he was withdrawing from the case. Brabham refused to say why, citing attorney-client privilege.

A Boca Raton man whose rape conviction and eight-year prison sentence were overturned on appeal won permanent freedom on Friday when prosecutors offered him an attractive plea deal. Colsson Ford, 28, was convicted in 1995 of sexual battery on a woman, who prosecutors said was bound, blindfolded and videotaped by Ford. But in December, the 4th District Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and sentence, saying inflammatory comments by prosecutor Barbara Burns during closing arguments may have played a significant role in the jury's verdict.